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I tried soloing as a monk, and found it to be a very difficult and frustrating experience. Getting swarmed by enemies is often a death sentence, so rather than going kung-fu with my fists I had to keep running and peck away at the chasing horde with my trusting returning cold dart. I managed to save the bridge from destruction, but only after a dozen attempts. Stunning fist doesn't work as often as it should. I finally gave up in the goblin warrens when I ran into the fire trolls. I just couldn't take it anymore.

Then I restarted as a solo drow sorcerer, and I'm having an absolute blast. Targos is a little touch-and-go at first, but once you get your first area nuke (snowball swarm) it gets a little better - since there are no allies to watch out for, you can go absolutely postal with your nukes. Because I get swarmed, I have to drop the snowball storm on top of myself - fortunately I packed some cold resistance items. Then there's lightning bolt - it's fun making the enemies chase you so that they line up in a nice line behind you. And then there's the wonderful joy of joys that is sunfire.

Well I’ve never soloed. But I played a monk the first time I went through IWD2 and he was the weakest link in the party. Monks don’t own like they do in BG2, where they are unstoppable (and frankly unfair). I’ve never played a monk any of the other times I’ve gone through IWD2, unless it was to get one level in powergaming.

And the sorcerer rocks! With the scrolls being unbalanced for the wizard in this game, the sorcerer is the best spellcaster in the game. There is such a damn good selection of spells for IWD2 (besides 9th level Cleric spells, LOL), I’m not surprised your sorcerer rocks! Wait till you max out with Black Blade of Disaster and Tenser’s Transformation. You’ll be a death machine.

Sunfire rocks, but too bad sunfire maxes out at 15d6. It would be nice it it kept leveling like skull trap.

I've come to the conclusion that monks are meant to solo or take care of themselves. They're meant to be bodyguards for sorcerers. A high-immunity meat shield that doesn't need much babying and doesn't get hurt by your nukes.

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a pal 2 - sorc X should be quite powerfull at each point when soloing!

due to immense number of MI, ultimate saves and immunity to fear there shouldn't be much that can harm you!

getting several powerfull spells much earlier then you should (DBFB somewhere around ice-temple and monastry and WoB somewhere between Kuldahar and dragons-eye I would guess) you shouldn't have any problems against most enemies...

...maybe you have a to restricted spell-selection on some levels - but that should be your biggest problem!

but as long as you keep your MI up and you have up to 8 MI! nothing should harm you!

...and even if you run out of spells you can switch to tensers and M-sword and have a melee killing-machine!


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Solo monk

I've read few post about soloing in BG2 and IWD2. I'm back on a BG2/IWD2 trip. I already finish Bg2/ToB so I started IWD2 again (like every year). I never imagined that soloing was possible in those game so I wanted to see by myself.

I started a deep gnome monk for soloing IWD2. I made a couple of mistake like being lvl 9 at gobling fortress (no xp gains). By now I just finish the ice palace (still at level 9) and I started the missing children quest. Actually that's not too difficult. Some Barbarian Warrior can hit me but not too often.

I hope to be able to continu the others quest at lvl 9. If that get too hard i'll take my squatted level.

I'm think about trying it in BG2 but a solo monk in BG2 can be as strong as IWD2 monk?

btw sorry if I made few mistake, I'm french (from Quebec)

IWD2: you really should just take the levels as you get them if you solo. You still get to level 20 extremely quickly with just quest experience. As a monk, you should be able to sneak past most non-required fights as well. The downside is explained by the original poster pretty well.

BG2: Monks are nearly unstoppable in BG2. I never tried one solo, but with super magic resistance and rarely getting his by anything, I imagine it wouldn't be too tough. My monk character in a party of 6 was unstoppable.

oh

I see, maybe I'll try to do BG2 in solo later.

I just had a really tough fight with will'o the wisp in iwd2... That took me so long and a lot of heal potions to kill them. But for now it's the only tough fight. I'm curious to see what will happen later.

May I ask you something? (If yes keep reading, else... well stop reading) What are you doing in BG2 solo monk versu Trap and Locked stuff?

In IWDII Monks need to be at high level to become effective... all the other skills are great, but damage bonuses and stuff are just horrible... With good saves in every gategory, evasion & impr. evasion, deflect arrows, poison & disease immunity, damage resistance, spell resistance, additional saves vs enchantment spells, quivering palm, ki strike, AC +1/every 5 levels, all this and more in 20 levels... and ten levels of sorc added this becomes excellent character and my guess is that he would do well in solo game also. Sorc levels offer MI, Shield, Armor, Blur, Blink, Fire Shield(BOTH) and other useful spells... A wild elf would be natural choice to have even more bonuses and weapon feats if needed. If you don´t mind exp. penalty, use Drow for this build for even more SR. Humans work fine i guess, but the lack of any good bonuses make them less desirable than those two, but with an extra feat and luck of heroes feat, human isn´t a bad choice
With Weidus mod Monk is even better, fists use weapon finesse and stuff

With the mod I would try Monk3/Barb3/Wiz3/Druid21 also...

Leveled

I was at the entrance for the Guardian Jungle went I finally took my squatted level. level 9 to level 29. Everything is much easier now. I killed the guardian without problem (still took few potion) but no big deal for the moment.

The only thing is when I killed the guardian I slept for 75 days (auto-sleep after this kill). That made me laugh what a sleep hehe.

I'm think about trying it in BG2 but a solo monk in BG2 can be as strong as IWD2 monk?

Definitely. I just finished a solo as a monk in BG2 earlier today. It was insane how powerful I was, I had over 100% magic resistance with how BG2 monks gain 3% magic resistance each level (it stops once you get to like 80%) and with bonuses from items and in game quests I got it past 100. The only thing that was causing me problems was the spell stoneskin, especially on monsters in TOB that you can't tell just by looking at them if it's still in effect. I had nothing to pierce it other then waiting it out. I couldn't beat the final chapter in TOB as a monk though, that chapter often gives me a lot of difficulty for my solos.

The only thing is when I killed the guardian I slept for 75 days (auto-sleep after this kill). That made me laugh what a sleep hehe.

:laugh: Yeah the time you rest until healed with characters/parties who don't have any healing magic can get ridiculous if you had lost a lot of HP. That bugs me so I often cheat and heal myself right before resting to avoid it lasting 10+ days at a time. Another thing to do is heal at a temple right before resting to avoid that long sleep.